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Wednesday, December 12, 2012

According to Reader Jeff, who provided the photos above, a driver managed to flip over his car in Carroll Gardens last night. The incident happened on Huntington Street between Court and Smith Streets at about 11:30 PM.
Luckily, no one was hurt, but the driver was promptly cuffed by police.

I live just up Huntington St from where this happened. I ran out when I heard the noise and the fire engines and so forth. I was astonished he'd managed to overturn the car in such a narrow street.

It underlines the point, however, that people drive far, far too fast in the area, especially on Court St. Court Street is currently terrifying for cyclists as cars go way in excess of the speed limit and are not inclined to pass bikes with the required space. Last night's crash underlines how something needs to be done to reduce speeds - for everyone's safety.

Drivers needs to pay attention and slow down. I walk my dog and these are my biggest complaints about drivers in Carroll Gardens:2nd Place- The street is a cut thru from 3rd to Smith to Hicks/BQE- drivers treat it as a race way to get to where they are going. I have seen drivers hit parked cars on 2nd Place due to all the pot holes and width of the street2nd and Henry- Stop sign to turn left onto Henry. Drivers don't obey the stop sign, don't slow down and take the left. Or sometimes they turn right and go the wrong way on Henry and turn on Woodhull!3rd and Court- Drivers rarely stop before the cross walk before turning on Court. I have almost been hit or seen someone hit once a day. 1st & Luquer and Smith- Again drivers rarely stop before the cross walk before turning on Smith. I have almost been hit or seen someone hit once a day. Luquer & Court- Yep- same complaint as above.

\\Yes this happened right in front of my house on 3rd Place. I too was astonished at how the car managed to flip over and travel many yards down the street and only damage two parked cars. Does the fact that they both were SUV's have something to do with it? It used to be that SUV's were more prone to flipping over. Don't know if that is still true.

The car this week wasn't an SUV, as far as I could see. It was a smallish sedan.

On the broader point about NYC's attitude to speeding motorists, I blogged about it a few weeks ago. The city still has no speed cameras and most police precincts issue hardly any speeding tickets (many issue more tickets for excessively tinted windows, for example). Meanwhile, the city council is directing the police to harass food delivery cyclists more. I agree that many food delivery cyclists are annoying - but it's March 2009 since a collision with a bike killed anyone in New York City, collisions with speeding cars, cars running red lights, distracted drivers and so on have killed more than 1,000 people since then. It's hard to see that the police have the balance right.

The blogpost is here: http://invisiblevisibleman.blogspot.com/2012/10/do-as-you-like-motorists-and-dont-blame.html

I second the point that it's nerve-wracking to ride a bike on Court St. The cars drive very fast and it's a very narrow road with little room for cyclists. I've never seen a police car stop one for speeding. On Smith, going the other way, the cars regularly cut into the bicycle lane as well.

It's hard to imagine how anyone can actually flip their vehicle on streets where the speed limit is low.

For those interested in making our roads in Carroll Gardens, Park Slope and other areas safer, check out my YouTube channel which is dash cam based documentation of the craziness that goes on all the time. Brooklyn has the highest insurance rates in NYC, and some 17,000 are injured every year. I, along with hundreds of other channels are working to stop the insanity in a community called ProjectRoadRush which was built right here in Windsor Terrace. Anyway, hope my channel inspires everyone to take it easy out there.